The prognostic value of immunoperoxidase staining for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was studied in a series of 140 non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with median follow-up of 9 years. Lymphomas where > 50% of cells showed positive staining for PCNA had inferior 5-year survival as compared with those with less than 50% of positive cells (57% vs 41%, P = 0.008). The presence of > 50% of positively staining cells for PCNA was strongly associated with a larger than the median size of the SPF (median, 8.3%), and high histological grade of malignancy (P < 0.0001 for both). Lymphomas with both a large percentage (> 50%) of PCNA positive cells and a larger than the median SPF had inferior outcome as compared with lymphomas where either one or both of these factors were small. Although PCNA staining was not an independent prognostic factor in a multivariate analysis, it appears to be supplementary to the SPF even if determined from old paraffin-embedded tissue material.